Destinations

Where was 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' filmed?

The clue is in the name – but 2018's miniseries 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' took filming to other corners of Australia too
Where was Picnic at Hanging Rock filmed
Freemantle Media

The tale of a group of Australian schoolgirls who go missing on a day trip in 1900 holds a curious fascination – so much so that many still believe it to be a true story. In fact, it is a 1967 novel by Joan Lindsay that was first adapted into a classic film by Peter Weir in 1975 and now into a new BBC miniseries. The story draws much of its power from the bizarre placement of Victorian England in the Australian landscape, and is aided not only by the Rock itself but also several of Melbourne’s most lavish architectural curios.

As the show’s production designer Jo Ford puts it, 'It’s a great period look, because it’s high Victorian – when everything was well and truly over-designed and everything was just a bit mad.' Melbourne is almost uniquely endowed with well-preserved statement houses from this period, and Picnic at Hanging Rock provides something of a grand tour. Add to that a shooting style that the show’s lead Natalie Dormer has compared to David Lynch's and which references Lewis Carroll, with fourth-wall breaking and trippy effects among the period detail, and you have another compulsive telling of this strangely enduring story.

  • The prime location is naturally Hanging Rock itself a weathered volcanic outcrop otherwise known as Mount Diogenes. An...
    Getty Images

    The prime location is, naturally, Hanging Rock itself, a weathered volcanic outcrop otherwise known as Mount Diogenes. An hour’s drive north of Melbourne, the sacred area is now a popular tourist spot, so filming had to take place under the watch of visitors. Dormer pronounced herself 'overwhelmed' and there were reports from cast and crew of stopped watches and fainting fits, as in the story. The picnic itself, shaded by eucalyptus trees, was filmed a few miles away by Sanatorium Lake.

    Striking a sharp contrast with the Rock is Appleyard College, the girls’ finishing school set up by enigmatic new arrival Hester Appleyard (played by Dormer). For this, the production drew on several of the mansions built in the Victorian era by settling colonial merchants. For exteriors, they chose Werribee Mansion, an 1870s sandstone edifice sited to the west of Melbourne. It has 60 rooms (and entire wings added in the 1920s that were avoided by the cameras), and the imposing balconies and central tower are used to great effect.

  • Freemantle Media

    For the interior of the college, however, filming moved to Labassa, a gothic mansion in the southern suburb of Caulfield North. Shot tight and in low light, its ornate staircase, gilt-embossed wallpapers and dark wood panelling are wonderfully claustrophobic and eerie. For the girls’ dormitories, they turned to Mandeville Hall in nearby Toorak. Now a girls' school, it’s another beautifully restored folly known for the perfectly preserved stained glass that is used to illustrate the story’s background of religious fervour.

    Perhaps most astonishing of all the big houses, however, is Rippon Lea, the Romanesque confection of red brick and glass conservatories that serves as the home of English society arrivals the Fitzhuberts. Situated in an inner suburb of Melbourne, it is heavily featured, as is the lake with its red cast-iron bridge and the garden’s grotto, although interior scenes were in fact filmed in Werribee, whose wide arches and lighter decor were considered more fitting for the local grandees.

  • Getty Images

    On a more humble scale but equally unchanged is the nearby town of Clunes, a survivor of Victoria’s gold rush. The settlement already has the original 1979 Mad Max on its CV and will feature in the forthcoming film adaptation of Peter Carey’s The True Story of the Kelly Gang. Here, with a few tonnes of dust covering the road and the addition of some coaches, it was transported back to 1900. Like the schoolgirls on the Rock, it’s as if the entire region is suspended in time.

    Above: Werribee Mansion located to the west of Melbourne, Australia.

  • Freemantle Media

    Natalie Dormer in period dress filming Picnic at Hanging Rock

TopicsOn locationAustralia